Tea and Antipathy

I just don’t get it, so maybe someone out there can explain to me why our local elected representatives have decided that what the voters really, really want is a dysfunctional state government. Because that is what we have and now we know exactly what this failure to govern is costing each and every student in our school district.

According to Creig Nicks, assistant superintendent of business services with the , the failure to allow voters the choice of whether to extend tax rates will reduce the spending per student by about $350 per student. Nicks told The Acorn that he was preparing to reduce such spending by $19 per student. I don’t envy his enormous task at hand which will undoubtedly result in spectacular unpopularity once parents understand exactly how much will be taken away from their children.

So now I must get to the heart of this disaster. What were you people thinking when you voted overwhelmingly for Republicans this past election?

This pattern is precisely the same behavior they had been wallowing in for years and years leading up to today. Is this what you wanted? It certainly must be what you expected, because they made their intentions quite well known with wall-to-wall jingoisms and platitudes about returning the government back to the people. By stonewalling a vote that would determine the character of our immediate and long term future? Seriously? That is how the people get back their government?

And by failing to do their jobs, and by this I mean a complete absence of statesmanship which revolves on negotiations, compromise, mutual respect, and, above all, legislating with the best interest of the people of the state as the highest purpose, my inclination is to fire them all and proceed without a government. Because the one we have is doing sweet nothing except picking up very large paychecks, and getting very generous lifelong benefits that the rest of us cannot afford. Yet, we are required to pay for their excellent pay packages.

So what has changed in the past ten years that has taken a difficult situation and parlayed it into one of abuse? Three words: the Tea Party. Translation: Charles and David Koch. These guys, who call themselves libertarians but, in reality, are Kochians pure and simple, have showered the Republican Party over the past five years with so much cash that their new song is “It’s Raining Dollars.” The Tea Party is their creation.

In order to receive all that largess, two things are required of Republican legislators. First, they must do what they are told to do, no questions, no hesitation, no retreat, no kidding. Second, they must be creative in not only defending their indefensible strategies but, aware that the best defense is a good offense, they must accuse anyone who does not agree with them of being less than a true American. Because, according to them, “tax and spend” is the sole purpose of the Democratic Party. This accusation while, in reality, the Republican legislators tax the rest of us and spend it on themselves and their uber-wealthy contributors. At the same time, they rationalize it in words I have often heard: “letting the rich keep their money—after all it is theirs!” So much for the most fundamental grasp of what a free society requires.

My solution is simple. Each and every Moorpark voter who helped to elect the current crop of Republican representatives should be required to cough up the $350 for each of their own children (if any of their children still attend public school anymore) and then fork over the $350 for every child of a voter who did not vote for those representatives.

It is clear that the Tea Party and all Republican legislators have shown their disdain for the health and welfare of the rest of the population, particularly the middle class. This, after having effectively obliterated the shredded safety net for the weakest members of society. And to them I say, “Fraternite, Egalite, et Liberte.” You can have the cake.

Perhaps, fellow Moorparkians, it is time for some of you, those who once believed in compassionate Republicanism, those who felt pride in the GOP in days of yore, to re-evaluate what you want society to look like when your own children are grown.